Dock hoppin'

[quivira kid]

Been doing some research the past year or so on a small local lake... not fishing all the time, as much as scouting things out, waiting for water levels and temps to be right. This lake has a lot of small, private docks that are allowed to be fished by the public unless in direct use of the dock owner. I've found a few with brush under them, and have been waiting for water to get right so I can see which the crappie and bluegills prefer.

10/26, I took dad and we started at one of the deeper ones, figuring there might be crappie stacked under it. The deep side of the dock sits over 17-18 feet of water. Problem is, I found the fish under the walkway.... in 4-5 feet of water. Put 2 crappie and a fat bluegill in the bucket there. Hmm... well, if they're that shallow, let's hit a few more where it doesn't drop off as fast. We would catch one or two in a spot, and then move on. Very fun time with dad, exploring and catching fish that haven't seen a jig for probably 2 months. Most fish came up aggressively and really thumped our jigs!

This tactic has strong potential to really pay off as fall and winter progress. We will see!

 

[eyecrosser]

We also caught fish real shallow this past Sunday. Local pond fish were in 2'-5' of water hitting jigs floated 18"-2' under a bobber. We only fished the afternoon with winds blowing the warm surface water into the area of the pond we were fishing. No big ones but caught about 15 crappie, 5 gills, and 3 decent bass in a couple of hours. Nice job, that batch will stink up a pan

 

[Radtexan]

Nice haul Zac...Looks like some solid gills in the mix !

 

[CrappieHappy]

Nice job Zac!

 

[quivira kid]

Thanks guys.
The crappie were all right at 10" if that gives you a better size perspective on the gills. They were pretty thick and chunky! Gave half to my pastor for him and his wife, and the other half got turned into some panko breaded fish tacos last night.

 

[StumpHunter]

Enjoyed the report Zac and congrats on the catch and day spent fishing with your dad.
Docks can hold a ton of fish, I fish a small lake with a lot of old wooden docks. I use a 5' ugly stick while dock shooting in my boat but I was in WalMart last week and they now have a short Zebco dock shooting rod. I think this will be a fun rod fishing the docks while in the kayak

 

[quivira kid]

Went out again today. The old man that religiously fishes the heated dock told me they hadn't caught a crappie there in a week.... so I proceeded to catch a FAT bluegill flipping a 1/16-oz jig, 3 keeper and 2 throwback crappie before I left. The jig I was using was a thread neck duck jig on a minnow head. Black/chart/orange, gadwall flank, orange thread. Then I went dock hoppin and brought home 5 crappie and 8 gills. Had to leave early today to help butcher a hog.
Got to see the first bald eagle of the season.... mature adult. And there were a lot more ducks and geese around! May leave the rods at home next weekend and chase some feathers.

 

[quivira kid]

Too windy to chase ducks, so I went to some new docks I had been wanting to try, but the wind hadn't been from the right direction to do so yet. Hit an old faithful first and put a solid gill in the bucket. First new dock.... 11" crappie right off, then these two followed:
12" crappie, 9" bluegill

Not a big numbers day, but the fish we caught were solid. Brought home two crappie and four bluegills.

 

[CrappieHappy]

nicely done Zac!

 

[Pepop]

EXCELLENT tine spent with your Dad! Good job! :icon14::icon14:

 

[Lost Pole]

Looks like your making a pattern with time-stamps. Way cool to hear of the studying w/o fishing also. I admire that tons, I just don't have thT willpower.
All pics are of beautiful fish, big gills! Hope your pops still got out with you on these latter trips.

 

[quivira kid]

Went out solo on Thanksgiving for a quick morning trip, and found fish but only one or two in any spot. Moved around a lot.

Went out again today. Lots of geese, and saw 3 eagles. Not much going on at the heated dock but some hot air from the retired regulars. I checked out several docks I hadn't fished ever before and found one with a bunch of brush in a sweet spot. 7-10fow, in the sunshine.

Filled up my stringer off one little dock! Brought home 11 bluegills and a crappie. And have another arrow in the quiver for a bluegill spot.

 

[LedHed]

Solid fish - way to hunt em down. Glad you can get out with your pops - relish those times.

 

[quivira kid]

Got cold cold cold this week, and most of the docks are locked up right now. I had to go to the always-popular heated dock and bump elbows to fish. Got there late, around 9:30am, and a regular reported nobody had caught anything for 2 hours.... sat down, set up the flasher, dropped a jig down to just above brush, and was getting my stuff settled in when my indicator went slowly down. I set the hook, thought I had hooked brush, so yanked again.... then the brush shook its head!

Biggun hit the surface, and all the old men started mumbling. 14 solid inches. About 5 minutes later, I connected on the 11" fish next to it.... and picked up a few bluegills along the way before I went home. Not bad for sitting in one spot for 2.5 hrs or so. I may have to fire up the auger if it doesn't warm up soon!

 

[LedHed]

WTG Zac!!! Bet you were getting a lot of "stink eye" too.

 

[StumpHunter]

Very nice! Good looking catch

 

[Hawnjigs]

Straight jig or tipping?

Hahaha, thought "stink eye" was a Hawaiian local term, like "broke dah mout"(delicious).

 

[quivira kid]

Sonny, definitely the stink eye!

Hawn, tipped tungsten ice jig. Maggots do wonders to convince finicky fish who have seen "the book".